Pope Francis greets the crowd a s he leads the Angelus from a balcony of Gemelli hospital in Rome July 11, 2021, as he recovers following scheduled colon surgery. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)
In his address, the pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St. Mark, in which Jesus sent out his disciples to anoint the sick with oil and heal them.
The oil, he said, not only represents the comfort given through the sacramental anointing of the sick, but also symbolizes “the closeness, the care, the tenderness of those who take care of the sick person.”
“It is like a caress that makes you feel better, soothes your pain and cheers you up. All of us, everyone, sooner or later, we all need this ‘anointing’ of closeness and tenderness, and we can all give it to someone else, with a visit, a phone call, a hand outstretched to someone who needs help,” he said.
Pope Francis said that his time in the hospital gave him the opportunity to experience “once again how important good health care is” and that free, universal health care, especially for the most vulnerable, is a “precious benefit (that) must not be lost.”
Acknowledging that some hospitals run by the church face the threat of closure “due to poor management,” the pope said the Catholic Church’s vocation “is not to have money; it is to offer service and service is always freely given.”